How many Super Bowls will it take for the Seahawks to be one of "those teams"? You know the ones. The teams that are consistently talked about in the national media. The ones who are given a legitimate chance at the beginning of every year no matter how good or bad they have been playing as of late.

I don't really care about the disrespect, real or perceived that the Seahawks generally get. Even when they are good, like now, the response is something along the lines of, "oh look at the nice things that team from Seattle is getting lucky with." I really don't care, one way or another. I just find it interesting and a little humorous.

There really is a built in bias in the league towards teams who have won multiple Super Bowls. The east coast bias is real, however I think that the "past success" bias trumps the east coast bias. East coast teams that have not been part of the perceived power elite, will still get more press than the Seahawks, but they are not automatically elevated to superior status by virtue of their past success alone.

I believe that 1 Super Bowl victory will get you some recognition in future years. New Orleans is living off of their victory and will probably get another 10 years of elite-ish recognition without another. A team that has 2 Super Bowl victories will vault into the upper middle class of league respectability. I would suggest to all, that without the built in east coast geographical connection, a team would need to have 3 Super Bowl victories to permanently put themselves into the national psyche.

So because of location in the pacific northwest, the Seahawks will need to win 3 Super Bowls before the respect card can even begin to be thrown out. But like I said, I don't care. The Seahawks are my team and I will always love them. With each successive Super Bowl Championship, the rest of the country will begin to see what we have all been seeing, the best team in the league, bar none!

As a Falcon fan, one in my book. If you seek validation through the respect of others you will come away disappointed. If the Seahawks win one, but aren't respected by the media does it make it any less special? Or the Seahawks any less a champion? I think not.

I know if/when the Falcons win one I will be so ecstatic the media/Falcon haters will be the so low on my "totem pole of cares" they will be spitting sand.

You truly know you're one of the "it" teams when you can go on an 8 year run of complete suckage, yet you still pull 2 or 3 Monday Night games, 2 or 3 Sunday Night games and a couple other nationaly televised games every season.

Last edited by LawlessHawk on Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

LawlessHawk wrote:You truly know you're one of the "it" teams when you can go on an 8 year run of complete suckage, yet you still pull 2 or 3 Monday Night games, 2 or 3 Sunday Night games and a couple other nationaly televised games every season.

Or be the Dallas cowboys that have had one playoff win since 1997. The Hawks have been a much more successful team then Jerry's kids but are get a lot less national games and in Vegas their "futures bet odds" of winning the Super Bowl are always lower!

If the NFL "allows" Seattle to win a Superbowl, it will take 2 within 4 years to be considered up there amongst the favs.

Respect for an NFL team on a national level is all about year-to-year consistency and fielding a team that has a realistic potential to go to the Superbowl every year. A consistent regular season W/L record of at least 10-6 is indicative of this potential. Also, the team must have had some recent success in the playoffs.

Applying my definition, clearly in the NFC, the Packers, the Saints and the Giants have national respect.

Atlanta, not so much due to their Playoff woes. And the Bears, not so much as well due to their inconsistency and Jay Culter being the whiny b!tch that he is.

In the AFC, I'd go with the Patriots, the Stealers, and the Ravens.

Teams approaching this standard include the 49ers, the Texans and the Broncos (due to Manning and their D).

Seattle is a team that is giving indications that they can achieve this standard. Whether they are able to achieve year-to-year consistency to my standard remains to be seen. I personally believe that they can, and will.

Last edited by onanygivensunday on Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

Shock2k wrote:Giants have won 2 with Manning and still get no respect. Green bay has won 1 with Rogers and get's all the respect in the world.

The country is fickle.

Because one of those teams has been extremely consistent these past few years, and has arguably the best QB in the NFL. The other team has been watching the entire playoffs from it's players' couches this year.

onanygivensunday wrote:Respect for an NFL team on a national level is all about year-to-year consistency and fielding a team that has a realistic potential to go to the Superbowl every year. A consistent regular season W/L record of at least 10-6 is indicative of this potential. Also, the team must have had some recent success in the playoffs.

The giants have the least respect of any team that has won two superbowls recently. Probably because they got in with a sub-par record and all that. Then they couldn't even make it back to the playoffs the next year. Makes them look like a fluke.

You don't have to win it every year, but you have to get at least one and be contending for one every year.

Since San Francisco won their last Super Bowl in 1994 they have gone 5 wins and 9 losses in the playoffs, most of those 10 or more years ago. Over that same period the Seahawks have gone 6 wins and 7 losses in the playoffs, most of those in the last 10 years.... yet SF is still far more "popular" in the media and still pulls considerably more "prime time" attention... obviously for what they were nearly 20+ years ago...

Part of the problem isn't just # of Super Bowls, but also franchise age. The Packers, Giants, Eagles, Redskins, Bears, Lions, and Steelers have been around since the Great Depression or before. The Browns and 49ers showed up in 1944, most of the rest of them in 1959. Most teams have family lines of fans and traditions going back decades; the Seahawks are still in their second generation of fans. We're in there with the Bucs, Panthers, Jaguars, and Texans, still fighting to wedge ourselves into the national consciousness amidst generations of tradition looking at us going, "Who the hell are you?"

Montana echos my thoughts. 2 or 3 will hold you for a decade. If you are a trend-setter, such as the 9ers were with Walsh or the Pats with Belicheck/Brady, then you have a good chance to stay in the limelight.

If you have a marquee QB for a decade or so, you should remain in the nation's interest. The youth will become veterans, so planning and luck has to lend a hand as well. Or the young exciting team becomes old and incapable of hanging near the top of the league.

LawlessHawk wrote:Since San Francisco won their last Super Bowl in 1994 they have gone 5 wins and 9 losses in the playoffs, most of those 10 or more years ago. Over that same period the Seahawks have gone 6 wins and 7 losses in the playoffs, most of those in the last 10 years.... yet SF is still far more "popular" in the media and still pulls considerably more "prime time" attention... obviously for what they were nearly 20+ years ago...

No they didn't, they made their mark with the 5 super bowl championships between 1981 and 1994. They did have a terrific season last year for sure, but their continued "elite franchise" status comes from what they did 20 to 30 years ago. The Hawks need a run like that to get into that group.

CaptainSkybeard wrote:The giants have the least respect of any team that has won two superbowls recently. Probably because they got in with a sub-par record and all that. Then they couldn't even make it back to the playoffs the next year. Makes them look like a fluke.

You don't have to win it every year, but you have to get at least one and be contending for one every year.

I think the Giants problem is they have no big personality at QB or Coach. There is no face of the team. I bet if you polled general NFL fans (not hard core), and they wouldn't even know the Giants have won 2 superbowls.

GREEDY PUNK PAUL ALLEN, THIS LOSS IS ON YOU."I don't give a crap WHAT you gotta pay, Kam is worth it and I don't want to lose a shot at another SB cuz you - a freaking BILLIONAIRE, are cheapskating Kam over a freaking $900,000.You cheapskate." SalishHawkFan SEP 13, 2015 1:47 PM

Building a dynasty is a hope and it takes the right pieces and a lot of luck and health to keep it going.

Many of the things stated above, but you also have to have a core of players that break out together and stay together for a period of time. They then get associated with a team and coach and legends get born. Bradshaw and Harris, Montana and Rice, Lott, Cowboys had Staubach and Hill and Thomas and Golden Richards. Brady and Bellichek are tied at the hip, New England rotates players in and out but Brady has been steady.

Once you get there you get credit for teams past if you have a style and charisma about how you do stuff. Dallas has been self promoted for a long time. Tex Schram before Jerry Jones, Giants issue is they rotate a lot of players as well, since Tiki was running the ball who really knows much about them year in and year out. Eli is there but thats it, Coughlin runs a silent camp pretty much till crap blows up.

Parcells was a coach that got attention and had opinions, he also had a damn good defense that was electric and Bavarro and Simms.

Besides when the previous Superbowl winners are overshadowed in their own town by the Rivals they share a stadium with you know that there is a certain mentality.

People respect the Raiders of years past until Davis was so far gone he looked more corpse then alive. They had a reputation, and brought it every week and won Superbowls playing that style of football. Think about all the names of guys that played there, they come pretty easy.

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